Am I a lucky son of a bitch today. The next system, COL 285 Sector PZ-O C6-9, is completely unexplored and again contains another water world, and some mineral rich planets.
- argon rich atmosphere, carbon-water based life
Upwards, onwards! A little deviation around here is in order, since it seems to be an area with a bit more of non-brown dwarf systems. The twin star system which I arrive in, with a red dwarf and a brown one, could yield good results, at least concerning the planets orbiting the former.
Interdiction during the fuel scooping process. A Federal Dropship. Damn it is getting hot here. I cannot evade the interdiction, probably because that damn ship type has very good turn rates as well. And indeed, the resulting dogfight makes me work a lot. First, the ship stays neutral and I use this occasion to squeeze off a kill scan. 24k CR of bounties await me on this one. It starts firing but misses, I retaliate. Some furious circles are ensuing.
- just finished scanning about its bounties, now the dance can start!
This time, I am very attentive to keep my shield well sustained, so I do not dare deviate too many pips to the engines. A jolt of panic surges when, on a close pass-by in order to get out of the Dropship´s firing arc, the missile alarm goes off. Boost! My Cobra´s superiour speed carries me out of range of those blinking white triangles. They soon stop to blink, so it seems they were just dumbfire missiles, anyways. Huff. I misselect the subtarget and am distraced in finding the power plant amongst the list. Again cracking laserfire, but my shields hold just fine. Just to be on the save side, I spend one of my few shield cells. After a while I realize that, although this bigger, heavier Dropship still manages to constantly outcircle me, its fire power seems to be negligible. It has probably too many pips in engines... Anyways, its destruction comes suprisingly early; I had lost track of the status of my subtarget. Boom. This battle alone so totally validates my ship choice and equipment for this second exploration attempt!
Some 9 planets surfaces scanned, they yield only icy rocks and I jump onward. The next system was already discovered by CMDR Fambaa, so I do not bother. I switch to a fast pathing in the galaxy map, and directly jump to my last target which I had foreseen for this expedition, HIP 110021, already discovered by CMDR Tequila. After I am done with re-scanning everything, it is time to make home!
- this water world has a co2-atmosphere, carbon water based life and "is a candidate for terraforming"
A white star system catches my attention. CMDR Sinoe Patton was there, but he did not scan the last outer ring planet. However, this one looks in the system map as if it had ice caps. Definitely worth investigating. Well, ok, it was worth a try, but this turns only out to be another icy planet.
Most white or yellow star systems on my way back have already been explored. Fine with me, I just move on. COL 285 Sector JS-T D3-64 is still unexplored and I make use of this fact and discover a lot of metal rich planets. I should remember that there are still a lot of white star systems around here and maybe come back later.
I am interdicted on my way back, and this makes me realize that, apparently, every interdiction takes away a bit of my hull strength. The Viper gets hit hard by my pulse lasers at its bow part, and it hastily jumps away.
- lots of fuel scooping required on a fast path back home
On my path, the galaxy map shows another depiction of a huge star, 52 Cygni. I think this is worth getting sidetracked again. And then there is 31 Vulpeculae, which has a little surprise, namely an independent outpost. Indeed far out from civilisation, it is owned by "The Blue Mafia", those are most certainly pirates; they export slaves, gold and palladium and import fruits, grain and animal meat. I guess this would be an ideal starting point for a career as a pirate! With my valuable data aboard, I do not dare to get close right now; besides, I want to drop off my data in a Federal system, in order to repair my reputation with them.
The fast path route from here only leads via brown dwarves, no thanks, I need scoopable stars, preferrably. So I deviate to a white star, a bit below the plane. Close to it, there is also Heria Pared, a name where I cannot find a real life correspondant; probably a system used in one of the science-fiction stories? Anyways, there is also an outpost here, controlled by independent "Super Comms Services". It offers the same export/import market as the pirate outpost, just silver instead of slaves.
CMDR Afleabyte (a name which is fun for English language people, I guess) and CMDR Kryphinzclo (a name which is fun for German language people, I guess) have discovered most systems here, notable one probably earth like. I want part of that share and go for it. However, it is just a metal rich planet, albeit worth terraforming.
I am then finally in Federation space, Duwar system. Weird enough, it is said to be a terraforming system, but there are no planets to be terraformed. Huh, whatever. I jump onwards, Dundbhai, also Federal space with only outposts, and again onwards. Where to? Well...now it is time to get back where they have space bars and celebrate! And I have in mind one particular in Yembo, Naddodur Terminal, because I get 5% off all drinks there!
Touchdown! My first successful expedition has ended. Commander Falkenherz, an interview please? Uhm. How is life out there for an explorer. Uhm, calm. Dangerous. Can you tell us more, commander? Well, all I want to say at this point, I need a shower, and be aware that all our civilisation is just like fleashit in the sea. Thanks, baba.
Aaaand here is the data, from roughly 100 systems.
- COL 285 Sector UZ-P D5-60: 38,155 CR; did not note it down
- COL 285 Sector HH-V D2-43: 70,574 CR; this was the previously unexplored ("virgin") system which I took as nav point, which had lots of metal rich planets and one water-world;
- HIP 110021: 73,400 CR; this was the system which had lots of metal rich planets and one water-world but was already explored by another CMDR. The planets No. 4 and 5 yielded ~17,000 CR, no idea why that is so much higher than other mineral rich worlds (maybe because they also had a particular atmosphere?)
- COL 285 Sector PZ-O C6-9: 27, 237 CR; a virgin system with lots of mineral rich planets and a water-world
- COL 285 Sector JS-T D3-64: 37,606 CR; a virgin system with a lot of metal rich planets
- COL 285 Sector FY-H C10-35: 20,707 CR; I have no notes about that one; first discovered by CMDR Ysron Starr, I am sure I did not surface scan much of it. System view is there but no planetary data displayed. The three last planets (gas giants) around star "A" yielded ~3000 CR, again I have no idea why. Weird.
- Pegasi Sector SF-U A4-D: 3,258 CR; this was the brown dwarf system which got explored by me as first explorer. Ahem, I guess I did it for the fame.
- COL 285 Sector OH-M a23-D: 4,964 CR; this was the comparable brown dwarf system which was already explored by another CMDR.
- COL 285 Sector JB-O A22-2: 5,366 CR; another virgin brown dwarf system which I completely surface scanned down, the same goes for COL 285 Sector UI-T A 19-D: 5,152 CR
- COL 285 Sector KN-T D3-64: 19,042 CR; this was the system with the terrestrian water world at the end of my last game session; the profit for this is bit disappointing
The data breakdown shows me the following facts:
- advanced scan of a planet: 250 Cr
- surface scan of a star: 200 - 1260 CR
- surface scan of asteroid belts: 0 CR
- icy planets: ~400 CR
- mineral rich planets: ~2900 CR
- water world or any planet "ready for terraforming" (latter seem to earn more): 12,000 - 26,000 CR
As I cash in the data, a window pops up and I get bonus cash for "first discovered" systems, which ranges from 500 to 1600 Credits. Neat! What I am not entirely sure is, whether the bonus is just for objects which I also surface scanned or whether an advanced scan already is enough.
- "first"
Total earning: Roughly 700k CR. Not much, I had hoped for about 2 million Credits, about half of what I would have earned by just trading in roughly the same amount of game time. Like this, I just got back roughly the loss from my first failed expedition. Ah well.
On the other hand, my reputation instantly jumped now to "friendly". Wohoo! Then I realize my mistake: Unfortunately, I forgot that Yembo is not affiliated to the Federation. All my reputation gain catapults me on "friendly" for Yembo Interstellar, and that faction only. I be damned, that went very much wrong! I so much needed that rep boost for the Federation!
Ah well, at least I know that you can jump up in reputation very nicely by doing one or two exploration sessions. That´s it for this session; I think I have learned a lot.
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